Khan Academy Kids - App Review
Shanti Kurada
This program gives teachers and parents a way to teach fundamental reading and math skills to students working at grade levels pre-school through 2nd grade. Through various interactive activities and patient animal characters, the app teaches pre-reading skills such as letter awareness, phonics, tracing letters, vowel and consonant sounds, consonant blending, and reading sight words. It also teaches foundational math skills including addition, subtraction, interpreting word problems, and setting up equations to solve them. The math skills are supported by logic activities that build memory, ordering skills, following directions, and interpreting symbols. The app provides an impressive library of interactive books at different reading levels including both stories and non-fiction topics. When kids have done their reading and math activities, they can switch to the art section and enjoy some creative time.
Program Quality
The program quality is excellent – the skills are age/developmentally appropriate and each activity provides clear instructions, teaches using a visual, concrete example, and provides ample practice opportunities. Feedback is encouraging and the correct answer is provided after the 3rd wrong attempt to avoid frustration. The sensory features of the app are colorful and engaging for the age range but also low-key and non-distracting, allowing the focus to remain on the skill being taught. The content is vast (both learning activities and books) and well-organized by topic and developmental level, so it is easy to individualize the curriculum to the user’s needs. Finally, the app can be set up for multiple users working on different areas or learning levels (such as students in a class).
Accessibility
Skills Needed – the user needs to be able to see with his/her eyes and use a finger to point and drag to use this app. The app does not require the use of a mouse or typing skills. It does not require reading skills as every choice contains an image, auditory instructions, and addresses the needs of pre-readers, early readers, and emerging readers; also, it provides reading support to readers at different levels as every image is accompanied by both text and auditory feedback (problems and instructions are read out loud to user). Students with hearing impairments (HI) will find it difficult to use this app – even though they can see the images and read the text, directions are primarily given in auditory format. Feedback for correct answers is displayed visually through a green check mark or allowing progress to the next step but it will not be explicit to students with hearing impairments (if they’re getting stuck on the wrong answer, feedback is purely auditory). This app is very useful for all students with disabilities who benefit from visual supports – such as students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Specific Learning Disability (SLD) - and are able to use their vision and finger for touch and dragging.
Built-in Accessibility – There is no Braille or switch or extended keyboard access, so this app cannot be used with students with visual impairments or physical/multiple disabilities that make it hard to use hands/fingers reach for the device and touch the screen. The directions do not appear in text form on the screen, so students with hearing impairments cannot use this app. Also, there is no closed-captioning on the yoga videos. There is no voice recognition so students with physical/multiple disabilities who cannot use their hands/finger/touch/drag motions cannot access it. The only built-in accessibility this app has is that most of the content is read out loud to the user. This read aloud feature is helpful for pre-readers and struggling readers (for instance students with autism or learning disability).
User Friendliness
Navigation and Consistency – It provides easy navigation with intuitive buttons and minimal clicks to get to where the user wants. When the app is first opened, the student can do general learning activities simply by clicking on the play button on the home page. There is also a ‘Library’ button on the upper left corner of the home page. I prefer this “entrance” into the app as it leads to a page showing all of the available content organized by learning area and developmental level. On the top of the Library home page, there are buttons for Letters, Reading, Math, Logic, Art, etc. Clicking on any of these leads to activities organized by developmental/grade level within that area of learning. The navigation is smooth and consistent.
Visual/Auditory Feedback and Reinforcement – The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When the student gets an answer correct, they are rewarded with a simple “good thinking!” or “that’s right!”. The tone is positive but low-key so the student keeps working toward the next step. There is no distracting music or song being used as a reinforcer. When the student gets an answer wrong, an encouraging “oops, try again” is provided as feedback. Also, cuing such as “look at the blue words” or “look at the picture again” are provided as help. Another great feature is the cue “tap the question to have it read again”. This is helpful to students with hearing impairments and auditory processing challenges. If the user gets 3 wrong answers in a row, then the correct answer is provided and the activity moves to the next step. Abstract concepts (such as how many missing butterflies) are given even more visual emphasis through a graphic – a bunch of butterflies (unknown variable) transform into 3 butterflies (concrete number) after solving the equation. Also, equations are set up in three different formats – using words, visuals, and numbers. Every piece of information is visual plus auditory (read out loud) plus text-based – so the user can access the information in different ways or learn to integrate them. There is one drawback however – directions do not appear in text form on the screen and are mainly auditory (with some highlighting/color used for visual emphasis). This makes it hard and mostly inaccessible for students with hearing impairments.
User Control – Users can easily choose what activity they want to work on. For instance, children can select a book to read and choose to read it themselves or have the book read to them by the app. They can choose to do any of the learning activities and exit the activity at any point in time. When the user leaves without finishing an activity, it reverts back to the beginning (this is a drawback). Users can choose one of the templates to create their own art and it gets saved in their library. They cannot modify content (such as adding books or videos) or the sensory features or the avatar assigned to them. A very young child who may not go the Library page and choose an activity can “play” with this app by touching the ‘play’ button – then their ‘adaptive learning’ feature kicks in and learning activities are adapted to how the child is responding.
Online Help – There is no ‘help’ button that can be used for a particular question/problem or after getting a wrong response, but hints are provided and the correct answer is given after the third wrong attempt. No online is help provided. However, the app is very straightforward and intuitive and does not require online support.
Adult Management Issues
Skill Level – There is no ‘Settings’ button to adjust the skill level of a particular activity – however, the skill level that the student needs to work on can be chosen by the teacher or parent. There are many different activities available for each skill level between pre-school through 2nd grade.
Mastery Criterion - The criteria for mastery level must be set by the teacher/parent by choosing what activities the user should work on and how many examples to do - and cannot be done as an adjustment to the activity itself.
Visual/Auditory Feedback – It is not possible to adjust the visual/auditory feedback. However, the feedback, cuing, and reinforcement is so appropriate for the age range, effective for learning, and supports diverse learners with ASD, ADHD, and SLD – for these students, that no modification is necessary. However, there is no text-based feedback (and no text-based instructions or closed captioning on videos) for students with hearing impairments. Also, there is no sound on/off button within the app because the directions are primarily auditory.
Response Time – this is unlimited and cannot be adjusted, that is, the user can respond as quickly or as slowly he wants to. This was designed as a self-paced learning app; so, if teachers want to help their students work on speed, they will have to set a speed goal for a particular student and track it themselves.
Content – This cannot be modified. However, the content provided is vast (both activities and books – stories and non-fiction) and addresses various learning areas within reading, math, and logic, and different developmental levels (within grades pre-K – 2) so there is no need for modification. Teachers can focus on selecting and using the content in an individualized way rather than spending time trying to customize it to each student.
Tracking, Data Collection, and Reports on Progress/Mastery – There is no tracking of data or reporting for the activities. However, there is an ‘Assignments’ page with the sub-heading, “Your teacher will assign lessons for you here”. There is, however, no way to add lessons to this page. It appears to be a page for future development.
Support Materials
Within the app - There is no dictionary feature or thesaurus feature that can be used by clicking on a word – although no difficult words are used and all words are illustrated with pictures, such features would get users into the habit of looking up meanings, learning about parts of speech, how to convert from noun-form to verb-form, and start thinking of synonyms and antonyms – all necessary for language development. A timer or notes page or calendar/reminder are not built into this app – these would be useful for teachers. A calculator would be inappropriate at the foundational math levels, so this is not missed.
Additional Resources – the app does not provide more activities on a website or links to other learning sites or resources such as an online dictionary or translator.
Value
Content Value – The content is very thorough and well organized. There are several activities under each learning area. For instance, under the learning area of ‘Reading’, there are activities for short and long vowel sounds, consonant sounds, and blending sounds including digraphs, prefixes and suffixes, sight words, spelling rules, grammar (parts of speech), punctuation, sentence formation, formal versus informal language, root words, and context cues. In other words, the content is very comprehensive and systematic, with concepts arranged in a logical flow to match a child’s development and skill acquisition. Teachers can find a wide range of concepts to teach, practice, and reinforce through this app. Since this huge amount of content is organized by area of learning, topic, sub-category, and developmental level, a specific skill activity for a specific student can be looked up very quickly.
Value To The Student – It has a clean, uncluttered interface. Visual and auditory features are colorful and engaging without become overwhelming or distracting. Also, these sensory features are used very effectively to illustrate abstract concepts. The skills are taught in a systematic manner with lots of scaffolding provided as needed to progress through an activity. Instructions are clear and concrete, and feedback is appropriate and encouraging. Questions are repeated if needed and the correct answer is provided after the third wrong answer in a row to avoid frustration. Also, many helpful hints are given after each wrong response. The characters are all friendly, patient animals. The activities involve food, nature, toys, picnics, games and other motivating objects and settings. Due to these factors, students will find this fun and engaging; they will also enjoy learning the concepts because the lessons, feedback, and practice are set up to make students successful.
Value To The Adult - For teachers and parents, this app has excellent value. It is very intuitive and easy to use, and it is free. It has in-depth content that is organized for easy access and forms a logical sequence of skills at each developmental level. Parents can use this app for homeschooling, or to provide their children with additional reading and math support at home, or engage them meaningfully when they’re stuck in a long car ride or other such situations. Both parents and teachers will love this app because it makes reading and math so fun and engaging without being over-stimulating.
Overall, this is an excellent educational app that helps early learners engage with beginning reading and math skills in a fun, supportive way. It can be used by both teachers and parents to support their child's learning and is free.